The arrogance of mainstream U.S. Comics
Just bought the 1989 BATMAN Special Edition DVD starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. As I put on the special features disc on the History of the Dark Knight, world famous sci-fi writer HARLAN ELLISON comes on screen declaring that in the past century, the United States gave birth to five original "artforms": the banjo, musical comedy, the mystery novel, jazz, and the comic book.
This is not the first time I've been getting this. A few months ago on the History Channel, there was a feature on American Superheroes and the same thing was said: Americans invented the comic book.
Now wait a minute. I could accept the fact that Americans with their overwhelming monopoly of worldwide media, POPULARIZED the "modern" 20th century format of the western-style comic book: a monthly pamphlet size format tome printed on pulp paper, in color, mass and assembly-line produced, targeted mainly at children and teen-agers, dealing mostly in humor, violence, melodrama, and other trivial pursuits.
But I could not, for the life of me, accept the fact that Americans INVENTED the comic book as an "art form". That's pure malarkey.
Since 1998 in Oakland, California, an 1842 American edition "comic" entitled: The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck by Rodolphe Topffer, was discovered triggering the Americans' curiosity of a possible "Victorian Age of Comics" or, basing it again on American standards, a possible "Platinum Age of Comics". The Europeans and the Japanese are possibly rolling their eyes by now at this late discovery made by the Americans.
Rodolphe Topffer (1799-1846) is considered by Europeans (especially the French) as the creator of the comic strip and the comic book graphic novel. He is also considered the father of bande dessine'e or French Comics. Topffer was a Swiss teacher and had made 7 comicbooks or "picture stories" that were widely circulated in Europe and later, the United States. Among his works were: Histoire de M. Jabot (1833), Monsieur Crepin (1837), Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck (1837), Les Amours de M. Vieuxbois (1839), Monsieur Pencil (1840) and Le Docteur (1840). READ more
